Digital Commons Network^™

They Soon Forgot Their Words - Documentary, Karen Paulk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This documentary film, They Soon Forgot Their Words, is about the language issues that threaten the Kaqchikel Mayan language spoken in Guatemala. It is one of 21 Mayan languages spoken in the country and is one of the most widely used with more than 500,000 speakers. Unfortunately, however, scholars have noticed that Kaqchikel is in a state of “shift” a process where one language combines with another in speech. As is the case with many Mayan languages in Guatemala, Kaqchikel is often combined with Spanish in speech. The colloquial name used for the combining of these two languages is “kaqchinol.” …

Ix: Story About The Law Of Non-Discrimination - Documentary, Denzel Jenkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to provide historical awareness for how Title IX, the anti-gender discrimination law in education, evolved to where it is today and the impact it has on universities in the United States. Strong-willed individuals sought change in the late 1960s and 1970s to prevent gender discrimination in education, thus beginning the creation of the law and making it a powerful tool for women’s rights. As Title IX expanded its reach, universities have been shaped by gender discrimination in athletics, sexual assault, harassment and rape. This project outlines the evolution of Title IX through research based …

Cracking The Social Media Code Of Post-Millennials, Bailey Elizabeth Kinney

Theses

This project will investigate the way that generation z/post millennials interact and respond to digital marketing and social media. The final deliverable is a 30-minute webinar offering a wide assessment of this up and coming generation. The video will include a comparison between how advertising is currently conducted for millennials and how it will need to change their successors. The webinar will also include research, examples of successful marketing to this generation, and practical application tips.

Interactions Between The Protein Industry And Blogs: An Analysis Of Content And Perceptions, Kylie Hackworth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis contains two articles that describe and characterize the use of the social media platform of blogging in the context of the animal agriculture and protein industry. The first article used content analysis to analyze blog posts and look for themes throughout the posts. This study included 37 posts from ten authors and resulted in four recurrent themes. The major themes were environment, consumption of protein, alternative protein source, and alternative dieting. The tones regarding these themes were both negative and positive toward the protein industry.

The second article used hand-coding to look for themes and similarities concerning flow …

Laughter, Discomfort, And The Mechanics Of Subversion: How Amy Schumer Uses Comedy And Performance To Change The Way We Think About Women A Thematic Analysis Of Amy Schumer, Stephanie Rosauri

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Amy Schumer earned a spot as the first woman ever on Forbes Top Ten Highest Paid Comedians List. This was a huge accomplishment but it begs the question why Schumer is the first. Past research on female comedians like Lucille Ball and Lily Tomlin illuminates how comedy can be used as a rhetorical device and highlights the importance of women in comedy. Through an in-depth thematic analysis of Schumer's movies Trainwreck (2015), Snatched (2017), and I Feel Pretty (2018), this thesis examines how Schumer uses different comedic techniques and how that compares to the way other women used comedy in …

Cooking Lessons: Oral Recipe Sharing In The Southern Kitchen, Alana Claxton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes oral recipe sharing practices as they emerge in Southern cooking. Researcher and participants were immersed in cooking recipes together in a qualitative research method that combined interactive interviewing with sensory ethnography. Findings revealed a category of oral recipe sharing practices that is missing from the literature: cooking lessons. This study identified cooking lessons as a distinct recipe sharing practice and worked to further operationalize and concretize such practices in hopes of spurring further research.

The Impact Of The Web And Social Media On The Performance Of Nonprofit Organizations, Namchul Shin

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This research empirically analyzes the impact of both the Web and social media on the performance of nonprofit organizations by using 100 nonprofit organizations ranked by web traction measures, including Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers. Our findings from ANOVA and non-parametric tests demonstrate that nonprofit organizations with higher web traction have greater contributions and grants than others with lower web traction. These findings suggest that the use of the Web coupled with social media promotes better, interactive (two-way) communications with the public, as well as fundraising and that nonprofit organizations that attract more supporters on the Web and social media …

Smartphone Use In Children’S Shows: A Qualitative Content Analysis, Dylan Mckinley Fleming

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes media messages through the lenses of social cognitive theory and cultivation theory. Specifically, this study focuses on messages about smartphone use in children’s cartoons. This study found smartphones are portrayed in a positive manner in the majority of the episodes. Themes of smartphone use included learning, helping, and increasing social standing in the case of capturing content for vlogs. Characters who modeled smartphone use were brave and helpful, but in some cases distracted. Outcomes for smartphone use were overwhelmingly positive. Based on the widespread usage of smartphones in real life, smartphone usage is only going to become …

Personalized Web Image Organization, Lei Meng, Ah-Hwee Tan, Donald C. Wunsch

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Due to the problem of semantic gap, i.e. the visual content of an image may not represent its semantics well, existing efforts on web image organization usually transform this task to clustering the surrounding text. However, because the surrounding text is usually short and the words therein usually appear only once, existing text clustering algorithms can hardly use the statistical information for image representation and may achieve downgraded performance with higher computational cost caused by learning from noisy tags. This chapter presents using the Probabilistic ART with user preference architecture, as introduced in Sects. 3.5 and 3.4, for personalized web …

Sustainable Foodways Of Scandinavia: A Closer Look At Sustainable Food And Beverage Practices In Denmark, Norway, And Sweden, Shandrea Marie Hickok

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Scandinavia leads the world with its devotion to sustainability and promotion of eco-friendly lifestyles. With concerns over climate change affecting the Nordic region, Scandinavian governments have taken an active role in creating national food strategies. So, what can Utah learn from the Nordic region? Ranking 45th in the nation for access to local food, Utah does not produce enough food to sustain itself for the future. With a background in environmental journalism, I traveled to Scandinavia during the summer of 2019 to explore Scandinavia's commitment to sustainable foods as a model for Utah. I examined modern and historical sustainable foods, …

Painting The Leaky Pipeline Pink: Girl Branded Media And The Promotion Of Stem, Juniper Patel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a critical feminist analysis of girl branded media depictions of girls in STEM. Through close textual analysis of three case studies—Disney Fairies films, Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures, and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls media—I found that such STEM promotion tends to emphasize traditional gender roles and neoliberal market values. Disney Fairies films promote traditional gender roles via portrayals of play STEM, white hegemony, and western beauty standards. Additionally, these films promote the neoliberal ideal of industrialization as consequence free. Dreamhouse Adventures depicts STEM in relation to traditional gender norms such as caretaking, heteronormativity, and girl culture. Furthermore, this …

Black Female Graduate Students' Experiences Of Racial Microaggressions At A Southern University, Kendra Elizabeth Shoge

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have found that microaggressions can cause psychological distress, frustration, avoidance, confusion, resentment, hopelessness, and fear. Previous studies from Southern universities have addressed the adjustment experiences of Black women in graduate programs, obstacles faced by Black women in higher education and strategies to overcome those obstacles, and factors associated with Black student motivation and achievement. Discrimination and racism are factors identified in those studies, however, there is little research on the experiences of Black women in graduate programs and the impact of racial microaggressions on them.

The purpose of this study was to examine Black female graduate students’ experiences of …

The Prospector, April 30, 2019, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: Up in Smoke

Spartan Daily, April 30, 2019, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2019

Volume 152, Issue 38

Rape Culture: Tools Of Oppression, William Wehrs

History Honors Papers

My project deals with rape culture and the tools of oppression. It looks at the history of rape culture from biblical times to the present. It then examines how schools indoctrinate people to participate in rape culture. It then moves to a backlash towards feminism from the 1970s to the present. The paper then connects said backlash to Men’s Activist Websites. Finally, my paper examines rape culture in the Media, such as the James Bond films or the video game, Super Seducer.

Call To Action: Climate Change Is Calling, Elizabeth Maccoy, Timothy Good, Sarah Fischbach Phd

Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research

The sustainability movement found in

many popular companies (i.e. Patagonia, Toms Shoes, Rareform) promotes helping the changing climate as part of their marketing strategy. Our research begins to uncover the benefits of these movements that shape student’s thinking towards sustainability. This study aims to evaluate sustainability on the campus of Pepperdine University from the students’ point-of-view after participating in a sustainability project in marketing classes. A convenience non-probability sample of 75 participants engaged in the quantitative Qualtrics online survey. Our results reveal that Pepperdine students who participated in the marketing campaign consider sustainability important, have positive attitudes toward the environment …

“Are You A Good Witch Or A Bad Witch?”: An Exercise In Suspending Judgment When Interacting With “Difficult” People, John S. Seiter, Christian R. Seiter

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Courses:

Interpersonal Communication, Health Communication

Objectives:

In this single-class activity, students gain awareness and practice in suspending judgments about “difficult” people in order to understand the reasoning behind certain objectionable behavior.

Agriculture Education Center Concept Approved, Gillian Panigot

Andrews Agenda: Campus News

No abstract provided.

Delicate Moments: Kids Talk About Socially Complicated Issues

Occasional Paper Series

The author offers an analysis of the failures and insights she experienced working with adolescents at a progressive school while discussing how the students understood and experienced race and identity -- their own and that of others. While she encountered students who were willing to take her into their worlds, her efforts fell flat when her questions turned out to be about their experiences of race and class. In response to such questions, Bauman received, on the whole, confusion, a few stories that distanced the teller from the events, and queries about whether this was "what she wanted." At that …

Volume 115 Issue 12, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

The Bride, Millennial Identity, And Instagram: A Case Study Of Hillsong Australia’S Instagram Account, Jessica Delp

Senior Honors Theses

Identity has become an incessant focus for millennials. They ascribe ever-growing significance to identity anchored in an accepting community that elevates their perception. Subsequently, identity is increasingly significant for brand and consumer relationships. Successful brands understand this and incorporate a pervasive sense of their unique identity into their brand, visually and otherwise. This case study of Hillsong Church hopes to help churches understand the importance of visuals in communicating identity. Hillsong Australia’s Instagram is examined using the Saussure model of visual semiotic theory to understand how they present their church identity in relation to millennial identity. The two most dominant …

The Amygdala Era: Emotion And Experience In Memoir, Meagan Shelley

Senior Honors Theses

Amygdala Era is a culmination of short memoirs and brief poetry designed to express a stream of consciousness state of emotion over logic. The work utilizes base, primal parts of the mind such as happiness, sadness, and fear, and dissipates into the emotion and memory that is experienced daily. This is achieved through a focus on creative writing theory including stream of consciousness, interior monologue, and free indirect discourse. Amygdala Era synthesizes the techniques, strategies, and methodology of these three theories by examining past literary examples from world history. Analysis of the targeted market for Amygdala Era is detailed based …

Spartan Daily, April 23, 2019, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2019

Volume 152, Issue 35

Does The Use Of Volunteers And Playbooks In Pediatric Primary Care Clinic Waiting Rooms Influence Patient Experience?, Tara Servati, Kalpana Pethe, Victoria Tiase

Patient Experience Journal

The purpose of this secondary data analysis was (1) to understand the use of a playbook as a positive distraction technique and (2) to explore the use of volunteers in the waiting room of an outpatient pediatric clinic setting. Specifically, the study examined the impact on perceived wait time, overall quality of care, and patient experience in a convenience sample of patients. Data obtained for a pilot program for improving patient experience were aggregated for exploratory analysis. Although significant differences in perceived wait time or patient experience were not found, the cohort exposed to both the playbook and volunteer intervention …

Spring Graduation May 2019, Hannah Gallant

Andrews Agenda: Campus News

No abstract provided.

Prospectus, April 18, 2019, Parkland College, Emma Fleming, Paul Benson, Ayla Mcdonald, Nic Hansen, Alex Lutz, Chad Beyler

Prospectus 2019

STUDENT GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATES IN ITS FIRST ADVOCACY DAY, Empathy and Love at Roger Ebert Feat 2019, Parkland Celebrates Earth Day with Sustainability Fair, Work by Our Creative Cobras Showcased, Vet Tech students washing dogs for $10!, Krazy Noodle Massacre, Parkland Golf Takes Second at Small College Championship, Cobras Silence Snappers on Saturday DH Route

Cross Cultural Volunteering: A Best Practices Guide For Aspiras Usa, Lindsey King

Honors Theses

This thesis project explores the topic of cross-cultural volunteering in the context of volunteer opportunities facilitated by Aspiras USA, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused on youth and community development efforts in the Dominican Republic. Aspiras partners with various college student organizations in the US and offers them opportunities for international volunteering in the Dominican Republic. Knowing how popular international volunteering is, and that it can result in negative outcomes, I was interested in the experiences of these Aspiras volunteers and the community hosts, and how to improve said experiences. I completed a thorough review of literature surrounding volunteer tourism …

Spartan Daily, April 16, 2019, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2019

Volume 152, Issue 32

The Prospector, April 16, 2019, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: The Earth Day Issue

The Effects Of Different Types Of Virtual Reality Display On Perception Of A Virtual Presenter, Ferran Poage

Honors Theses

Virtual reality (VR) displays present an immersive 3D virtual world that convey a sense of presence. These displays are rapidly increasing in fidelity, from traditional 2d desk monitors to head-mounted displays (HMD’s) like the Oculus Rift. Research must investigate the relationship between this growing level of fidelity in displays and the virtual experiences they produce, especially as high-fidelity devices become more widespread. Evidence shows that the fidelity of VR displays can affect a variety of factors such as spatial awareness, communication, engagement, arousal, enjoyment, and presence. The current study investigated the potential relationship between the fidelity of VR displays and …